Dow Hits New High—Up 20% for the Year

Generally, "just good enough" economic data is sufficient to lift stocks and ease investor worries about the Fed stepping back from stimulus.

The Goldilocks economy is back. Soft job news Friday wasn't enough to dent another big week for equities, with the major indexes setting new highs Friday—again. The continuing excitement has come on generally "just good enough" data from the U.S. economy, from second-quarter corporate earnings, and even from the jobs arena.

In many cases, bullish data—such as Thursday's lower jobless-benefit...